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General discussion

Standards for Music Downloads

by SimoneDice Apr 2, 2004 2:36AM PST

There are many people who pay to download music from the internet such as Apple, Music Match, Wal-Mart and the soon Sony Connect. Furthermore, people also use portable audio players to play the music. However, if you want to use a Rio portable player and use iTunes, it is a hassle trying to convert your music to an mp3 format. Also, if you are downloading from Wal-Mart, you need to make sure your player either plays WMA or you must hassle converting it to a format that it does play; which will cost you more space on your hard drive to store. Now that the new Sony Connect is coming out, they will be using a special format that I am almost certain only their player will play, and I presume that the hassle will be the same if you do not buy their special player. Who agrees with me that there should be one music format that can be played on all portable audio players?

Discussion is locked

4 Posts
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Don't agree.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Apr 2, 2004 3:34AM PST

Vote with your pocket book and feet.

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Re:Standards for Music Downloads
by Art Apr 2, 2004 6:46AM PST

Darwin's natural selection..or is that econ101..anyway, I agreed with Robert 100%. Vote with your packetbook.

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Playing itunes on a Phillips MP3 Run psa260/17
by schwartzds Feb 12, 2005 3:58AM PST

How can I convert a downloaded itune in MP4 format to an MP3 or other compatible format so that I can play it on my Phillips MP3 Run psa260/17?

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Incompatible Forms
by gosfan Feb 12, 2005 12:04PM PST

Based on what I've seen, I think that Sony's player will have a format that only Sony players will play, but will also offer MP3 playback. Originally their recently introduced hard drive player was to only play ATRAC files (Sony's proprietary format), but it looks like market pressure caused them to add support for MP3 into the player.

Sony's first CD/MP3 player only played standard CDs and MP3 files. All of the recent Sony players I've seen play both of these formats and also play ATRAC files (and come with software that allows you to create ATRAC files from your own CDs).

Due to the concerns of the recording industry over music piracy, I don't think that you will see a single format for compressed audio that is used by everyone for all compressed music. I think it is more likely that we will end up with two formats, non-DRM MP3s (of various bit rates) as a standard for personal use, and a DRM based format for commercial distribution via the Internet. The commercial format will probably offer better sound quality at the same bit rate, but will be locked down.

But for this to happen, the industry will have to do what they did with the introduction of CD: agree to a single standard. The music industry learned a lesson from the disaster of quadrophonic: incompatible formats will delay or kill a movement in technology. Witness the battles between VHS and Beta, Minidisc and DCC, and the seven incompatible forms of quadrophonic.

I think that any compressed audio player (with that as its primary function) that does not support MP3 playback will fail in the market place. One advantage that compressed audio offers is that the music can be converted to a different format if necessary (although the process may introduce distortion in the resulting file).

Thanks for reading.

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